An associate professor of anthropology from Towson University in Baltimore will complete the Latino/Latin American Studies Fall 2021 Series with her lecture “Imagining Socio-economic and Agro-ecological Alternatives in a Movement of Climate Crisis: Voices from Movements in Latin America and Baltimore.”

Dr. Nicole Fabricant will deliver the lecture during a webinar event at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10. A link to the Zoom webinar will be made available in advance.

The theme of the Latino/Latin American Studies Fall 2021 series is “Race and Climate Change.”

In Bolivia, the indigenous communities historically have been marginal to economic, social and political power and benefits as a consequence of the conquest and colonization of the region, and of the persistence of unjust systems into the postcolonial period.

South Baltimore, Maryland has historically served as a dumping ground for wealthier areas. For decades, Baltimore’s waste system has created and perpetuated racialized economic and health disparities while advancing an environmental crisis.

This has escalating effects that cause poor-quality housing, lack of health care and lack of accessible fresh food.

In her lecture, Fabricant examines grassroots activists’ working toward alternative land ownership, agro-ecology and the building of land trust in Bolivia and Baltimore.

The ideas coming directly from Native and Black communities are systemic and holistic solutions to society’s economic, public health and climate crisis.

Fabricant’s presentation incorporates the multiple voices of Black and Brown activists while also proposing some policy recommendations as the U.S. moves toward a Green New Deal for Housing/Green New Deal for Education.

Fabricant teaches courses such as Resource Wars, Environmental Justice, Rethinking Indigeneity and Political Economy of Water.

Her work focuses on the cultural politics of resource wars in Latin America and the U.S. Her most recent work as an activist/scholar centers on the history of industrial development and toxicity in South Baltimore.

Her forthcoming book, “Fighting to Breathe on Baltimore’s Toxic Periphery”, under contract with University of California Press (anticipated publishing date in 2022), narrates the rise of community-based development through which poor people across race and class claim rights to land, affordable housing and economic co-operatives in their neighborhoods.

Her work has been published in NACLA, Jacobin, Dissent and Catalyst, among others.

This Latino/Latin American Studies program at CSB/SJU organizes every semester a public events series on a relevant contemporary theme.